Aid

By Jen Marlowe, for the Pulitzer Center

(please read Ethiopians part one if you haven't yet....)

David Morse, for the Pulitzer Center

"I was cursed to be born Sudanese," Pagan Amum once told me wryly "A good friend of mine was born in a village near the Uganda border where they didn't even know exactly where the boundary lay. He was cursed to be born Ugandan."

Jen Marlowe, for the Pulitzer Center

(please read Ethiopians part one if you haven't yet....)

David Morse, for the Pulitzer Center

Jen Marlowe, for the Pulitzer Center

A man wearing a green, yellow and red knitted cap with the words "End Racism" greeted us as we walked through the Ethiopia market in Kakuma Refugee Camp. (Kakuma was established to house the influx of Sudanese refugees escaping from camps in Ethiopia in 1991, but since has sheltered refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, DRC, Burundi, and Tanzania--exact breakdown in next post)

David Morse, for the Pulitzer Center

Our charter flight out of Juba was delayed by a day, as it could not take off from Malekal owing to muddy airstrip. (Appropriately, by temporary e-mail address is [email protected]) We did make it out Sunday morning, though, in time to settle in at the International Rescue Committee guest quarters where we were delighted to find actual beds, privacy (one to a room) and flush toilets - our first experience with these luxuries in the month we've been traveling.

David Morse, for the Pulitzer Center

We did get to speak to Salva Kiir, President of South Sudan and, under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Vice President of the Government of National Unity. He, like Pagan Amum, Secretary General of the SPLM, was optimistic about the transformation of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement from a liberation movement to a political party and its ability to bring home a victory in the scheduled 2008 elections.

Jen Marlowe, for the Pulitzer Center

"Without optimism, I have no right to call myself a freedom fighter," Pagan Amum, the Secretary General of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement told us. "This optimism is not calculated, it's organic. Optimism, coupled with action, is what makes a revolutionary."

We were sitting with Pagan Amum, awaiting a quick and impromptu audience with Salva Kiir, the President of South Sudan. We had been scheduled to have an interview with Pagan the previous morning, but it had been cancelled.

David Morse, for the Pulitzer Center

Even if you've been following our blog, the answers to the following three questions may possibly surprise you.

What is the infant mortality rate in South Sudan?

Do the "roads" like the one to Wau that we bemoan offer South Sudan salvation or ruin?

What is the color of Wau?

David Morse, for the Pulitzer Center

Koor's reception at his family's compound in Kuajok was intense. His Dad kissed him repeatedly and hugged us all. They had sent a pickup truck to Akon to facilitate our travel north to Kuajok, and later they would facilitate our travel to Wau. Both parents expressed their gratitude upon seeing their son, and to us for having helped bring him "home." Later, a bull was slaughtered and we were feted with the best food I have tasted in Sudan. But nothing can compare with that first emotional encounter.

Jen Marlowe, for the Pulitzer Center

Koor got a message last week.

It was from his father.

Koor had sent someone on a motorbike to go to all the towns and villages where he had heard his parents may be, trying to track them down. They were located in Kwajok, the regional capital of Northern Bahar el Ghazal. They sent a message back to Koor, asking him to come immediately.

David Morse, for the Pulitzer Center

Last Thursday I watched the beginning of it: Jen's immersion into Dinka.